Joseph Cummins explains why presidential politics has always been kind of dirty

Author Joseph Cummins‘ new book traces the various ways in which American elections have been influenced through chicanery. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Election Campaigns. After the 2004 campaign and the “Swift-boating” of Senator John Kerry, Cummins said he wanted to write a book that describes some of the country’s least flattering examples of democracy, and the result is a year-by-year catalog of various dirty tricks that have helped elect our presidents – from both parties.

Some fun insults are used in this interview: hermaphrodite, atheist, and “lady of the night.”

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Rick Britton: The story of three Albemarle County women

Local history takes center stage every Friday when Rick Britton joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!”

This week on the show, Rick previews a lecture series he’ll be presenting at the Senior Center on Civil War related day-trips. One of them will include a trip to Port Republic, and Rick explains just whath happened there.

But in the main topic for this week, Rick tells the story of three women with connection to Albemarle County. First, the Langhorne sisters. They were the daughters of Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, and moved to western Albemarle in 1894. Irene became the model for one of the “Gibson girls” and Nancy wound up becoming Lady Astor, the first woman to be sat in the British House of Commons. Rick also has the story of Maude Coleman Woods, a Charlottesville woman who became one of the first people to be called “Miss America.” However, the story doesn’t end well, as Rick explains.

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Before Florida; A History of Voting Technology

For more than a century, voting machines have helped shape American political history. The chaos of the 2000 presidential election in Florida and the alleged election fraud in Ohio during 2004, which led to testimony before congress about computer programs that could rig an election, demonstrate the crucial role that voting machines play in shaping the outcome of an election. Bryan Pfaffenberger, a historian of science and an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, believes there is value in understanding that the interaction between technology and culture has been going on for more than a century.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar ShowvDj(tm)s blog.

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Upper Mattaponi Chief tells Democrats why his tribe deserves federal recognition

Chief Kenneth Adams of the Upper Mattaponi (courtesy George Loper)The state of Virginia recognizes eight Indian tribes, six of whom are seeking federal recognition so they can have more self-governance and self-reliance.V On January 19, 2008, Chief Kenneth Adams of the Upper Mattaponi updated a crowd assembled at the monthly breakfast of the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Democrats on the status of pending legislation to grant federal status to the six tribes. Adams was the first Indian in Virginia to graduate from a public high school.

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Revisiting Abraham Lincoln’s law career with Julie Fenster

The year was 1856, a pivotal year in American political history. That’s when the Republican Party formed, and the year that Abraham Lincoln decided to become a member. Historian Julie Fenster joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about her new book, The Case of Abraham Lincoln: A Story of Adultery, Murder and the Making of a Great President. Read more of Fenster’s work at her blog at American Heritage.

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Jon Kukla explores Mr. Jefferson’s Women

Jon Kukla received his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and from 1973 until 1990 he directed historical research and publishing at the Library of Virginia. He then followed up as curator and director of the Historic New Orleans Collection, before becoming the director of Red Hill, the Patrick Henry National Memorial in Charlotte County. Now he lives in Richmond, and recently published a book called Mr. Jefferson’s Women. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to discuss the new book.

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David Blight on slave narratives

Slave narratives are extremely rare, with only 55 post-Civil War narratives surviving with only a handfulG,V of those are in the first-person. Two newly discovered accounts and the biographies of the men who wrote them join that exclusive group with the publication of the new book A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom. The author of the book, David Blight of Yale University, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about the work.

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Vincent Bugliosi on why he thinks JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald

True crime author Vincent Bugliosi has written a new book called Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The man who prosecuted Charles Manson joins Coy Barefoot to talk about why he thinks JFK was killed by a single assassin, and debunks many of the conspiracy theories. Bugliosi says its the most important work of his career, and explains why.

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Historian Britton tells the tale of Albemarle’s Moon Ghost

Local historian and cartographer Rick Britton joins Coy Barefoot to talk about what he considers Albemarle County’s most famous ghost story, the Moon Ghost, who haunted the Glendower area south of Scottsville around the time of Reconstruction.

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The story of WWI Aviator James Rogers McConnell

Charlottesville historian and author Rick Britton joins Coy Barefoot each week on “WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about our area’s past. These days he’s working on a map of the Argonne, where the last major battle of World War I was fought. U.Va alumni James Rogers McConnell ’08 signed up as an aviator before the Americans officially entered the war, before being shot down in March of 1917. Britton tells his story in this installment.

This week’s quiz question is, who sculpted the statue of McConnell that stands outside Alderman Library?

Photo used with Permission of Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries.

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